One Panel #362: Shiera Becomes Hawkgirl

Well, she becomes HawkMAN to confound criminals, but that bikini top's not going to fool anyone. Shiera Sanders keeps using Carter Hall's extra wings until she formally adopts the identity of Hawkgirl. From girlfriend to superhero in her own right - and some might say more popular than the male model these days - in about a year and a half. That's not bad. And it really starts in All-Star Comics #5, a JSA story. She does get shot for her trouble, as does Dr. Fate's girlfriend Inza, while Dian Belmont, Sandman's paramour, gets kidnapped. It's open war on the girlfriends! At least Shiera got a nice gig out of it.

Costumes like that I always imaged were leggings (or tights) with shorts or panties worn on top, and then a pair of boots over the leggings. That image implies that it's actually the shorts that go on first and that the leg parts are actually stockings, with the boots being attached to said stockings.

You can have her putting on the shorts without having an exposed butt. She'd already have leggings on. Besides, you could do it just as she's finishing. Hell, have her fiddle with the belt, or (as Siskoid says) boots. And if the aim was to avoid upsetting the prudes, then how was the upper thigh okay? Did Zettai Ryouiki not exist back then?